April 21, 2009

E-Mail This Article Epic's first "customer-built" Victory is on display at Sun N Fun.

Epic Aircraft's Rick Schramek announced that the first two "customer-built" Victory and Escape turbine aircraft had been completed and were displayed at Sun 'n Fun. The Victory is a single-engine turbofan with a fuselage-mounted Pratt & Whitney PW600 engine. According to Schramek, the Victory aircraft, the first to be built and flown, arrived at the show with 48 hours of flight time. Initial specifications have the Victory truing 330 knots, but Schramek said the early flight testing showed it to be a "340-knot-plus" aircraft.

Epic also showed the first "customer-built" Escape turboprop single. It's a

Epic's Rick Schramek addresses the press.

smaller cousin to the Epic LT. The Escape uses a 1000-shaft-horsepower Honeywell turbine and Hartzell prop. Claimed performance is 365 knots top cruise, 300 KTAS economy cruise.

In addition, Schramek announced several follow-on models that are in the "market survey" phase. These include a twin-engine version of the turboprop Escape (see the model in photos), a twin-engine version of the full-size LT and something called a BLT (for "Big LT"). "Think King Air 350 sized cabin with at least 1250 shaft horsepower each side." Finally, the company showed a drawing of an "Eclipse killer" twin turbofan VLJ.